


Viola Grown

by copperbadge



Category: Ouran High School Host Club - All Media Types
Genre: College, F/M, Future Fic, Gender Roles, Pining, Shakespeare
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-07-05
Updated: 2006-07-05
Packaged: 2017-11-20 15:16:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/586775
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/copperbadge/pseuds/copperbadge
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Haruhi is a mystery to her university professors -- but not to Kyoya, who knows her better than she knows herself.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Viola Grown

"What are you watching?"

Professor Ryu Adachi had been sitting on the steps of the Humanities building, basking in the sun, when a shadow fell across him and he looked up to see Tetsuo Yuki, his fellow Literature professor, gazing down.

"I'm watching a young woman," he said. Yuki grinned and dropped down to sit next to him, effortlessly.

"Pervert," he said.

"Oh yes; all these nubile young students, they're all fodder for my insatiable sexual appetite. No, this one's special," Adachi said. "See the girl -- there, in the blue shirt?"

"The one with the short hair?"

"She's the one."

Yuki looked around. "You're not the only one watching her."

"I know, that's how I discovered her. I didn't notice her at first; I just noticed that all the men were looking at someone, and there she was," Adachi said. "She's fascinating. Watch this."

The girl had been talking with a tall young man in glasses, who carried a briefcase and was wearing the suit that most of the business students affected to make themselves look more adult. Now, she laid a hand on his forearm, laughed a little, and tilted her head slightly. A nearby student, also watching her, sighed.

"Who's the lucky boy?" Yuki asked.

"That's Kyoya Ohtori."

"You've done your homework."

"I have a friend in the Business college. He's the youngest son of _the_ Ohtori, the billionaire," Adachi said.

"No wonder he's in Business. He looks like he'd rather be with us," Yuki observed. The girl had reached into her bag and was handing him a book, one of the novels usually assigned in Introduction to English Literature. He took it, inclined his head in a half-bow, and they parted ways. She hadn't gone ten feet before another boy approached her, close enough and loud enough for them to overhear.

"Haruhi, Haruhi I was wondering," he said, following her like a puppy as they walked. "Are you free tonight?"

"Hello Egawa-senpai," she said, smiling at him.

"H - Hello Haruhi," he replied, stammering and blushing.

"He's a third-year student," Adachi whispered to Yuki. "She's a first-year. Interesting, isn't it?"

"I can't go out tonight," she continued. "I'm working."

"Won't you tell me where? Are you a waitress? I'll come and order food from you! Oh, do you serve drinks at a nightclub? Tell me where, I'll bring friends!"

She smiled up at him. It was a nice smile, but not anything extraordinary.

"No, I don't wait tables. But I will meet you tomorrow morning to study, if you want to!"

"Yes! Tomorrow morning, early!" he said eagerly. "I'll bring breakfast! Where?"

"Outside the library. See you then, Egawa!"

"She's quite kind," Yuki observed, as she turned a corner and vanished from sight. "But I don't understand why all the young men are following her like that."

"No, she's not particularly beautiful, though she is pretty. Still, there are lots of pretty girls on the campus," Adachi said, as a group of young women walked past in skirts much shorter than Haruhi's. "That's why I've been watching her every chance I get. She's unusual."

"You should look after _yourself_ ," Yuki said suddenly, inclining his head slightly. Adachi followed the movement. The young man who'd first been speaking with Haruhi was standing there, staring directly at Adachi. "While you're watching her, someone's watching you."

Adachi smiled to himself. "More and more interesting. It's very literary; I think I shall be novelistic. Excuse me! Ohtori! May I have a word?"

The bespectacled man tilted his head, apparently thinking about it, and then approached. Yuki tensed.

"Yes, Professor?" he asked. "You have the advantage of me."

"Adachi, professor of Japanese Literature. This is Tetsuo Yuki, professor of Advanced English. The girl you were speaking with just now, Haruhi."

"Haruhi Fujioka; yes?"

"How long have you been in love with her?"

The young man adjusted his glasses slightly. "I don't see how that's any of your business. With all due respect, Professor Adachi."

"It's not," Adachi said easily, laughing. "It's just that your competition is very stiff. If you don't tell her soon, she might choose someone else."

Kyoya smiled, but it was a thin, humourless smile. "You aren't her professor, or you wouldn't say that. Haruhi is in love with school. She doesn't waste time on romance."

"You know her well, then?"

"We attended high school together. We belonged to the same social club."

"And you followed her here?" Yuki asked. "What a love story!"

"It is the best school in the country," Kyoya said mildly. "There was no question of where she would attend, and this is my father's school."

"The Business college." Adachi didn't miss the way the boy's fingers tightened on the book Haruhi had given him. "Your father wants you to take over the family business."

"I like Business."

"But you like books more."

Kyoya tilted his head. "Haruhi has taught me that a man needs to understand many things, to be a businessman."

"I'm very interested in her now," Adachi mused.

"Pervert," Yuki repeated.

"No, I think not," Kyoya said to Yuki. "You're gay -- aren't you, professor?"

Adachi raised an eyebrow.

"I hear things," Kyoya said in a false, light tone. "So if _you_ aren't in love with Haruhi, perhaps it's...anthropological?"

"You could say that."

"You may be interested, in that case, to investigate the Ouran High School Host Club," Kyoya remarked.

"You can't just tell me?" Adachi asked.

"I could, but it's much more entertaining this way, don't you think?" Kyoya said. "Haruhi has introduced me to the mystery novel -- fascinating genre. Enjoy yourself, won't you?"

"He terrifies me," Yuki said as the younger man walked off. "I didn't know you were gay."

"I didn't want you to imagine I was always ogling your ass," Adachi replied with a grin. "Ouran High School, eh? I think I'll take a field trip this weekend."

***

Yuki found Adachi in the teachers' common room on Monday, absorbed in the study of a handful of photographs.

"Handsome boys," he said with a grin. "Is that your Kyoya boy?"

"Indeed," Adachi said, turning the photographs around so that Yuki didn't have to crane his neck.

"And there's Haruhi -- why is she in a boy's uniform?"

"Meet the Ouran High School Host Club," Adachi said. "Four years ago. Kyoya Ohtori you've met. This fellow -- "

"The blond?"

"Tamaki Suoh. He's half-French; his teachers say he's studying in France now. These twins are Hikaru and Kaoru Hitachiin -- "

"I know them!"

"Yes, they attend here as well. This tall, strapping young man is Takashi Morinozuka, who apparently is studying at the culinary college, and the small one there is Mitsukuni Haninozuka."

"The martial arts champion."

"The same. And there's Haruhi, who's studying history with the intent to go into law. Which of these things," Adachi asked, tapping the photographs, "is not like the others?"

"Well, obviously..." Yuki looked at the photographs again. "It must be Suoh. He's not fully Japanese."

Adachi stared at him.

"Or -- well, the karate whiz, he's a lot shorter than the others..."

"It's Haruhi, you moron. She's a girl."

"So? Lots of clubs have a gender imbalance."

"Not host clubs. The whole purpose of the Ouran Host Club..." Adachi handed him a pamphlet with a photograph of several handsome, smiling men on the cover, "Is to entertain young women who want to drink tea and have conversations with handsome boys."

"Your kind of place."

"That's a low blow, even for an English professor."

"Ha!"

"So here's the question," Adachi said. "Why is Haruhi Fujioka, a girl, being photographed as a host? A male host?"

Yuki picked up her photograph. "She does look a little boyish."

"She does."

"Are you saying...?"

"I believe she posed as a male throughout high school, yes."

"Wow. Gutsy girl," Yuki said. "This doesn't answer any of your questions, though. It makes new ones."

"As all good murder-mystery clues do," Adachi agreed. "Which means it's time to badger the witnesses again."

"You're going to try Kyoya once more? Where will you find him?"

Adachi winked at him. "I imagine I'll only have to follow Haruhi."

***

The dining commons in the centre of campus was spacious and always smelled of good food, but at two in the afternoon it was also fairly quiet. Only a handful of students were eating late lunch, talking softly amongst themselves in the high-ceilinged dining room.

"Kyoya! How nice to see you again," Adachi said cheerfully, his tray balanced on one hand, a large bottle of cola in the other. "I was just thinking, I'd like to have lunch with Kyoya. Weren't you, Professor Yuki?"

"Oh yes," Yuki said, seating himself next to Kyoya. Adachi sat down on the other side. Haruhi, sitting across the table from Kyoya, looked mildly alarmed.

"Who's your friend?" Adachi asked. "I think I've seen you around the Humanities building, haven't I, miss?"

"Professor Adachi, this is Haruhi Fujioka. Haruhi, this is Professor Adachi and his companion, Professor Yuki."

The slightest emphasis was placed on the word "companion". Yuki glanced at him, frowning.

"Pleased to meet you," Haruhi said. "I'm afraid I'll be late for class," she added to Kyoya, gathering up her lunch things. "I'll see you tonight, won't I?"

"Certainly," Kyoya said.

"She's skittish," Adachi remarked as she left.

"She saw you wished to speak to me privately about something," Kyoya said, unruffled. Adachi took the photographs out of his coat pocket and laid them on the table. "Ah."

"Handsome young men," Adachi remarked.

"Yes. I took these myself," Kyoya said, indicating the ones of Tamaki and the twins.

"This one," Adachi said, tapping the photograph of Haruhi, "is particularly handsome."

Kyoya smirked. Just a little, but it was a definite smirk.

"I have a theory," Adachi continued. "Would you like to hear it?"

"Certainly."

"Have you studied much theatre, Kyoya?" he asked. Kyoya gave him a mild, blank look. "Did you know that in Noh theatre only men are considered truly qualified to play women?"

"I'm aware of it, yes."

"And in England, in Shakespeare's time, men were trained in how to play women. Women weren't," Adachi continued. "So Professor Yuki tells me."

" _I am all the daughters of my father's house_ ," Yuki quoted quietly in English.

" _Twelfth Night_ ," Kyoya replied.

"So our Haruhi was a boy for four years, and spent her after-school time charming women," Adachi continued, imperturbably. "She learned how men act alone with each other, and how women act towards men. She was treated as a man by women, and learned what women do. She watched and listened and learned."

"Haruhi is a brilliant student," Kyoya allowed.

"And when the time came for her to be a woman again, because there was no reason not to be -- maybe because she's not so hardened to men as you think?"

Kyoya bowed his head slightly. It might have been an acknowledgement, or it might have been an encouragement to keep talking.

"She knew all the things women had said and done to her as a man, and she knew what men find obvious and what women do. She knew what charms work best on men. She'd been taught how to act like a woman, not just to be one," Adachi finished. "And thus men find her a perfect woman, and...irresistible."

"I never found her otherwise," Kyoya said softly.

"Didn't you?"

"I knew she was a woman when we met. I was the only one of the Host Club who did."

"And she doesn't mind it?"

"Mind what? Being a woman?"

"Acting like a woman. Always acting."

"Do you really suppose she is? Haruhi is...unique. Nothing she does is an act. She is -- " Kyoya smiled. "Her boyfriend calls her the natural rookie."

"Boyfriend?" Adachi asked, surprised.

"Tamaki Suoh -- studying in France, as I'm sure you're aware. It's perfect, isn't it? He takes up no more of her time than it takes to write a daily e-mail," Kyoya said. There was no brittle bitterness in his voice, which was telling in and of itself. "And she doesn't need to worry about not loving him, because he will never know. Tamaki is my closest friend, and I know him better than anyone. He's a wonderful child, completely self-absorbed in his quest to please women."

"But you love her. Surely it wouldn't be difficult..." Adachi blurted, still startled.

"She will find me in the fullness of time. I don't intend to leave her side," Kyoya said. He looked sensible, placid about the whole thing. "Tamaki is a boy, and always will be. A romantic. Haruhi is not a child, despite her literature and history and her charming way with men. I hold her to a higher standard; I don't devote myself to her pleasure, but to a happiness that we might share. She wants Tamaki now, but that will pass. She needs _me._ "

"You were right, Adachi," Yuki said. "It _is_ a novel."

"You have been most enlightening, Professor," Kyoya said, gathering up the photographs into a tidy pile. "I will think on what you've said today. Thank you."

"Come take one of my courses, Kyoya," Adachi said impulsively. Kyoya smiled.

"I'll see if I can fit it in. Business school is very demanding. Perhaps if Haruhi does, we could be study partners. Good day," he said. He bowed, the same small, slight bow he'd given Haruhi three days before, and walked off.

"Twelfth Night, eh?" Adachi asked Yuki. "I may have to teach that one sometime. Do you know of a good translation?"

END

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Viola Grown [podfic]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10761600) by [so1thought](https://archiveofourown.org/users/so1thought/pseuds/so1thought)




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